OPT Oregon Wave Energy May Roll In Soon

Coos Bay, Oregon — The jobs are coming, so Ocean Power Technologies insists.

OPT spokesman Len Bergstein said Monday the company wants to get stimulus funds from the federal government.

“We have a strong interest in presenting a project that would be jobs-ready right now,” Bergstein said.

OPT wants to get a test buoy in the water soon. It recently formed an agreement with Lockheed Martin in which Lockheed would provide construction, systems integration and deployment work, according to a press release.

The announcement last week followed on a similar report from Oregon Iron Works in Clackamas and American Bridge in Reedsport that said they plan to share buoy construction work, if Oregon Iron gets OPT’s contract.

Bergstein said the Lockheed agreement is for higher level technical, systems integration work.

“It would not replace work on the coast,” he said.

OPT has said it hopes to get a buoy in the water this year and to submit plans to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the federal government in March.

The Obama administration recently put together the White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families, chaired by Vice President Joe Biden, to boost the living standards of the country’s middle class. Its first focus is green jobs, those that use renewable energy resources, reduce pollution, conserve energy and natural resources and reconstitute waste. The task force’s first meeting is Feb. 27.

If the community can get behind OPT’s plans, Bergstein said, the company could submit it to the task force.

“We want to demonstrate that wave energy projects are the kinds of things that can bring jobs to coastal communities,” he said. “Nothing could say that better than being part of a stimulus package.”

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